Dominium: Omnipotent

I believe that art is primarily a spiritual pursuit.

My goal in creating the Dominium Project is to create a new breed of sacred music that honors the centuries of musical tradition that have come before, but that is also fresh, dynamic, alive, and participatory. I want to create music that is both artistically deeper and spiritually deeper. That’s not an easy goal, and one that doesn’t portend to occupy a great deal of market share. But it’s one that’s important to me. So much beautiful music has been written for Christian service, but we listen to it only occasionally in concert halls. Meanwhile, art within a spiritual context has languished, as we have come to believe that art should not serve some sort of external master. This is a big discussion, and I intend to carry it on in other posts.

While the primary experience of music as part of a Christian service has changed over the centuries, and most of the masterworks written for service were intended to be absorbed passively, I would like to explore how to bring some of this great heritage into use.

Here’s my first stab at creating something that embodied some of these goals, but not necessarily all of them: “Omnipotent.” The text of the piece and the melody line for the choral parts are from Handel’s Messiah: “For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth.”

This is the first one of the series – more are to come soon.

I really hope you enjoy this. Could I ask you to leave a comment, or share this piece if it moved you? – it lets me know you’re listening, and that you like what you hear.